Every huge artist has their "New Jersey" - a huge event album that ultimately feels a bit hollow & signals a career decline

Shania Twain - Up!
George Michael - Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1
Norah Jones - Feels Like Home

Be Here Now was instant letdown though, I'm minded to disqualify it (though in truth I've never listened to it, boy will my face be red if it turns out it was brilliant)

George Michael - Listen Without Prejudice Vol.

yes!

Listen Without Prejudice isn't a New Jersey surely

weren't the reviews of BHN kinda like "whoaaaa! wow!"?

praying for time is exactly what Sony did when Michael insisted on releasing this single first.

Eric Clapton's Pilgrim?

"Fastlove" and "Jesus to a Child" were US top 10 hits??????????

It sold even less than LWP though (a massive Euro hit though). And why not? Look at his scary goatee on the cover.

And George hasn't charted since

actually, looking at the sales stats and considering that ppl still adore "Freedom 90" but no one remembers or ever hears any of its, I'm tempted to say Older makes more sense

wondering why all the best examples of this are late 80s/early 90s. hmm

its HITS, I meant

Robbie Williams - Escapology

Eric Clapton's Pilgrim?

― Jeremy Spencer Slid in Class Today (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, August 7, 2012 4:21 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I was going to say "no" but then I read this little jem on Wiki, Wild's review pushes it into the "New Jersey" realm

Reviews for Pilgrim were mixed upon release. Allmusic described the album as "bland", while Rolling Stone's David Wild gave it four out of five stars, stating, "Pilgrim is the work of someone who has learned in the hardest way imaginable that although he cannot change the world, he might be able to change himself."

do each of the solo Beatles have a New Jersey? wanna say yeah, Mind Dreams & Living in the Material World for John & George; not sure about the other two

Steve Winwood - Roll With It (1988)

2x platinum, title single at #1 for four weeks. Barely cracked the top 30 with his next album, and that was pretty much it. Seems like the singles from the three preceding albums are played more now.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_AdiGyfhHqDw/TO1StQf3EmI/AAAAAAAABVY/op6CEIxc1KE/s1600/Dire_Straits_On_Every_Street.jpg

xposts Pauls's might be Press To Play, and George's might be the second Wilburys lp.

Robbie Williams - Escapology
^^yes. & probably Take That - Progress.

I think Rihanna's Talk That Talk could be her New Jersey - although "We Found Love" was obv a colossus it feels all her popularity was leading to that point and a sense of fatigue has now started to set in (the album's other singles chart performance suggesting that). If not this record, then her next album will likely be her New Jersey.

Roll With It is a good pick.

a real "why do I own this?" moment

Wait, do Bon Jovi fans feel this way about New Jersey? I never had that impression. (My sister loves it, for instance.) I know it's considered inferior to its predecessor but I didn't think it was seen as an embarrassment? I saw them a couple of years ago and they still play songs from this album. I interpreted this concept as "similar but somewhat lesser album that was overhyped because of the success of the previous album". Bad seems like a very good answer to me.

I think Rihanna's Talk That Talk could be her New Jersey - although "We Found Love" was obv a colossus it feels all her popularity was leading to that point and a sense of fatigue has now started to set in (the album's other singles chart performance suggesting that).

well, "Where Have You Been" was also massive

kind of super pleased "Birthday Cake" charted NOWHERE

For my money, a New Jersey has little to do with subsequent quality drop-off - that is, I don't think it needs the "beginning of the end" clause in the definition...because then we're really just talking about "big albums that weren't as good as the previous one and were better than the ones that followed." What's interesting to me about the NJ phenomenon is the idea of an album that sells huge, spawns SEVERAL hits, and yet kind of disappears from the band's narrative, legacy, canonic list of concert staples, whatever. I actually think Storm Front is a perfect example of this - - "We Didn't Start The Fire" survives as a novelty, but when was the last time you heard #6 hit "I Go To Extremes"? I also buy Use Your Illusion - those records both have gone, what, six times platinum, with seven Mainstream Rock top-ten hits, including two number ones.... and I would venture to say that MR #7 "November Rain" is the only one still in regular rotation anywhere. Maybe "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" a bit? It's a monster hit album that just had no long-term constituency, no traction in people's hearts, and no hope of making the "best of decade" countdown circuit.

I've been banging on about radio formats a lot on ILX yesterday but I wonder how many New Jerseys are down to radio shifting out from under a band or a genre, or a new crop of kids coming up who aren't as interested in that artist or their sound, so all of a sudden you stop hearing the singles much earlier than you'd have expected to. The whole grunge/alt-rock takeover in the 90s has obviously been overstated as a musical revolution or whatever (as a million people have already pointed out) but it may have some weight just in terms of, all of a sudden, you would have been hearing way less of things like "Don't Cry," uh, "You Could Be Mine" (??), "Yesterdays" (no idea how this goes), "Living In Sin," "Lay Your Hands On Me"...

Pretty shaky theory, I'll admit. But basically I think this is about megahit records that people just didn't fall in love with, not necessarily records that people listened to and went "ehh, no, this sucks." I would second Use Your Illusion, Dangerous, and maybe We Can't Dance. A lot of these other ones are just meh albums or big commercial disappointments - - I mean, Fairweather Johnson was hardly a hit factory at the time!

Maybe DMB's Crash? Seven times platinum, four singles made the alternative Top 20, but, ehhh, not much enthusiasm for it these days, I think even from the Dave camp.

"Birthday Cake" was pretty much her biggest urban radio hit ever, got played around the clock on every R&B station. just not a pop hit like her other singles. (xpost)

Ah, Dr Casino's explanation makes sense to me.

ould the new Rick Ross be his New Jersey or was that the last one?

― Elrond Hubbard (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, August 7, 2012 3:04 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

not sure i quite framed it this succinctly, but that was my general thesis in this little piece i wrote for the voice http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/2012/08/rick_ross_god_forgives_i_dont.php

Roll With It is SO New Jersey.

"Birthday Cake" was pretty much her biggest urban radio hit ever, got played around the clock on every R&B station. just not a pop hit like her other singles.

curse you, Wikipedia

Btw, I'm most of the way through NJ: did this mark the exact point where Bon Jovi became a country band? Maybe what hurt its is just that it came out before the emergence of 'new country' radio?

also, i wonder this gets a bit at raffles's question of why this seems like a late 80s/early 90s thing - - - I think to have a New Jersey you have to be in that post-Thriller, pre-download age when marketing was album-oriented and there was a general tendency to milk singles out of a record for a long while, so that you could rack up these like 5-6 single runs from albums that ultimately people didn't care that much about, and meanwhile even as the album's life cycle was playing out, the band's position in pop's hierarchy was slipping, or radio formats were shifting out from under them, not completely but enough that the album never built up a longer-term base.

Setting aside my little narrative, I'll say that Oops!...I Did It Again might be a borderline case; title track is huge enough that it's probably disqualified, but "Lucky" and "Stronger" haven't exactly been radio staples since, and frankly most DJs going for the throwback "remember junior high and Britney Spears?" play are going to go for "Baby One More Time," not "Oops!," even though I think technically it was a bigger hit at the time?

"Baby One More Time" was bigger.

I think to have a New Jersey you have to be in that post-Thriller, pre-download age when marketing was album-oriented and there was a general tendency to milk singles out of a record for a long while, so that you could rack up these like 5-6 single runs from albums that ultimately people didn't care that much about, and meanwhile even as the album's life cycle was playing out, the band's position in pop's hierarchy was slipping, or radio formats were shifting out from under them, not completely but enough that the album never built up a longer-term base.

ot

m

There's the 'event album' element as well xps - the album gets hyped in advance as being The Big One and it briefly seems like it is, but unlike its predecessor it leaves no trace.

There's the 'event album' element as well xps - the album gets hyped in advance as being The Big One and it briefly seems like it is, but unlike its predecessor it leaves no trace.

in that case I think Kanye's destined to have My Beautiful Dark Twisted Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Fantasy as his New Jersy

"Baby One More Time" was bigger.

Daha - you're totally right, just looked it up. Okay, I feel solid putting Oops! forward as a New Jersey within my narrowly-defined world where New Jersey status is divorced from the success or failure of albums that follow.

ould the new Rick Ross be his New Jersey or was that the last one?

― Elrond Hubbard (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, August 7, 2012 3:04 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

not sure i quite framed it this succinctly, but that was my general thesis in this little piece i wrote for the voice http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/2012/08/rick_ross_god_forgives_i_dont.php

― tauheed & cambria (J0rdan S.), Tuesday, August 7, 2012 5:47 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark

lol should this be the thread where i nitpick that review

no

incidentally, the main impact of this whole discussion for me is having "Bad Medicine" stuck in my head, also i am convinced that Bon Jovi's best hits are the ones where I can mis-hear some element of the chorus as being about Batman, as in "Your love is like Batman is in" and of course "Shot through the heart, and you're to blame / You can't run...from Bat-Man."

it's not like it would turn into GOON BEEF TIME, you know j0rd is too cool for that (xpost)

i really thought Roman Reloaded was showing major signs of the rot setting in (slower sales, much less urban radio support than Nicki's first album), but "Starships" is actually kinda bigger than "Super Bass" at this point and it'll be years before it's clear whether she's on the decline or w/e.

Tha Carter IV is pretty New Jersey, though, bet Wayne's going to face some serious indifference pretty soon.

50 Cent's The Massacre is def the most New Jersey rap album of all time, though.

The W

INXS - X

Van Halen's For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge. Debuted at #1, marketed as a return to Halen's hard rock sound, promises of a big party ("dude, the title says FUCK!"), blah blah blah, but overall feels like a lumbering elephant. I think the only lasting memory of it is "Right Now" being used on occasion as a campaign song.

but i so love my baby's poundcake!

Duran Duran - Seven and the Ragged Tiger

I've been wrestling with 7&TRT all day. Fits a load of the criteria, but... just doesn't smell like a NJ to me.
Can't put my finger on why.

i was gonna say carter IV but wasn't sure

FUCK by Van Halen is def a New Jersey

Blur - The Great Escape

― Ismael Klata, Tuesday, 7 August 2012 18:44 (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

aye.